Brazilians have chosen a proto-fascist demagogue, Jair Bolsonaro, as their new president. The result in the second round of the election last Sunday was not unforeseen. In the first round, on 7 October, Bolsonaro was within four points of a straight victory. On Sunday he obtained 55.5 per cent backing versus 44.5 per cent for his Workers' Party rival, Fernando Haddad.
Bolsonaro represents the Social Liberal Party that obtained, in the first round, the largest congressional representation in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. He also comes to power with a clear majority around Brazil's Gubernatorial and Legislative Assemblies.
Bolsonaro's law-and-order rhetoric, regrettably, found the minds of the majority of Brazilians. Street crime is rising and seven Brazilian cities feature in the world's 20 most violent. Bolsonaro, who is a former army captain and has spent 26 years as a legislator, has represented the de facto alliance between the country's traditionally undemocratic political right, the economic elite, the military and the fundamentalist evangelical churches.
Brazilian analysts have predicted the country is heading to four years — the presidential term length — of repression of the social movement and an assault on workers' rights. It will also see a direct military influence in the government. Bolsonaro is an admirer of the brutal 1964 -1985 military dictatorship. The Uruguayan former president and a moral figure in the region, Jose Mujica, said: 'Bolsonaro is a danger to Brazil and the region.'
Prominent Catholic priest Frei Betto — who suffered the military dictatorship first hand — said the election of Bolsonaro would represent the 'return of the military' and the 'criminalisation of social movements, repression of art and culture, militarisation of schools and a green light for [right wing] militias'.
Bolsonaro's victory is the result of a fragile democracy that was unwilling and unable to punish those responsible for the crimes committed by the dictatorship. Wrapped in impunity, the Brazilian military has been patiently waiting in the shadows to once again take control of the Palácio do Planalto, the magnificent government house designed by Oscar Niemeyer.
The election of Bolsonaro is the nauseating product of Brazil's disenchantment with democracy and popular hatred against a political system corrupted to its core. It is corruption — a malaise that infiltrates just about every slice of Brazilian society — that has pushed the country to what Vladimir Safatle, a Brazilian philosopher, has described as 'night without end'.
"On Sunday — mark my words — Brazil sank into darkness."
Those most disenchanted are the largest majority of Brazilians, young people. In a country of more than 190 million, 62 per cent are aged 29 or under. Regrettably, driven by sheer desperation by the lack of economic opportunities, young Brazilians became the cannon fodder of Bolsonaro.
He also found support among the middle class whose standard of living has deteriorated. Prominent Brazilian theologian Leonardo Boff spoke before the second round of a 'frightened middle class contaminated' by the rhetoric of Bolsonaro and the 'influence of a commercial media that have never gotten along with democracy'.
In a country submerged in a bottomless and lengthy economic recession, large sections of the middle class have joined the 27 million people who are either unemployed or are no longer looking for a job. Those who supported Bolsonaro are those who perceived that the centre is incapable of transformation, so they move to extremes.
His election is also the product of the increasing influence of Brazil's reactionary evangelical churches. In just a decade evangelicals have risen from 26 million to 46 million and Catholics have gone from 90 million to 70 million. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Bolsonaro had the support of 36 per cent of evangelicals.
Bolsonaro has promised to block the legalisation of abortion, gay marriage and drugs. He also promised to re-install the traditional family structure — a male-dominated one. Bolsonaro is Catholic, but he cemented a strong evangelical patronage through a messianic discourse against LGBT citizens, feminists and left-wing activists (a footnote: Bolsonaro's second name is Messias).
The election of Bolsonaro is significant. Brazil is the fifth most populous country on the planet and the largest economy in Latin America. Bolsonaro, described by The Economist as 'a menace to Brazil and to Latin America', will demolish the progressive redistributive policies the Workers' Party achieved while in government.
The main economic adviser of Bolsonaro is Paulo Guedes, a fundamentalist neoliberal economist trained in Milton Friedman's Chicago School. Guedes, who is an admirer of Chile's neoliberal economic system implemented by former military dictator Augusto Pinochet, has said Bolsonaro represented the middle class that has been assaulted and abandoned by the left. Its program is to privatise all Brazilian state companies and, as he said, 'simplify taxes' and reduce the state apparatus.
Bolsonaro is the manifestation of a terminal crisis of Brazil's post-dictatorship political order — its institutions, the executive power, the judiciary, and the legislature. He will establish a national security state to the service of the interests of big capital and the military. On Sunday — mark my words — Brazil sank into darkness.
Antonio Castillo is a Latin American journalist and Director of the Centre for Communication, Politics and Culture, CPC, RMIT University, Melbourne-Australia.
Main image: Brazilian Presidential Candidate Jair Bolsonaro votes in the country's election (Ricardo Moraes-Pool/Getty Images)